Water on Earth is more likely to have come from asteroids than comets that hit our planet billions of years ago, European researchers said on Wednesday. Mankind’s first probe of a comet came last month when the European Space Agency’s Philae lander touched down ...

NASA’s newest space vehicle, Orion, accomplished its first test flight with precision and pizazz Friday, shooting more than 3,600 miles (5,800 km) out from Earth for a hyperfast, hot return not seen since the Apollo moon shots. For a space agency still feeling the ...

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency aims to give a name to the destination asteroid for the Hayabusa2 mission, which blasted off Wednesday, a senior agency official said. It might consider asking the public for a name, said Hitoshi Kuninaka, a professor and project manager ...

DNA molecules attached to the outside of a rocket may be able survive a trip to suborbital space and back into the Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high temperatures, according to a study released Wednesday. The experiment, carried out on the TEXUS-49 rocket mission in ...

As the first probe ever to be stationed on a comet hibernates, attention is turning to the Rosetta orbiter, which is still buzzing around the space snowball. The Philae lander’s batteries lasted about 60 hours before running out. Rosetta is expected to observe comet ...

A moon mission for the masses has launched. A project to fund a private lunar exploration mission got underway Wednesday, offering the public the chance to take part. For as little as £10 ($15), Lunar Mission One gives the public a chance to buy ...

The European comet lander Philae “sniffed” organic molecules containing carbon — the basis of life on Earth — before its primary battery ran out and it shut down, German scientists said Tuesday. They said it was not yet clear whether the molecules included the ...

Robot probe Philae drilled into comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko long after its onboard battery was feared to have died, and late on Friday uploaded a slew of data to Earth. Data started streaming in as soon as contact was re-established between Europe’s robot lab and its ...

AP — British physicist Matt Taylor brimmed with excitement Wednesday as the European Space Agency’s Philae lander separated from the Rosetta spacecraft, showing off a colorful tattoo on his thigh of the two craft while proclaiming, “We’re making history.” But the unconventional Rosetta project ...

It took a set of retro-looking images to reawaken the world’s sense of wonder about space exploration. The black-and-white pictures of a rocky surface sent back from a comet hundreds of millions of kilometers away are the product of an astonishing feat of science ...

Europe’s comet probe Philae was “working well” despite a rough-and-tumble touchdown that left it partly shadowed from battery-boosting sunlight, ground controllers said Thursday. Clearly relieved, they reported that in the first 24 hours after its historic landing, the lab had sent home a slew ...

European scientists were awaiting a stream of data Thursday after a robot laboratory made the first-ever landing on a comet, a key step in a marathon mission to probe the mysteries of space. The landing on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko required immense precision, as even the ...